Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement held it's fourth general meeting on Saturday in McAllen, Texas and it was one of the most memorable ones we've had so far. While we originally planned to watch portions of the Rally to Restore Sanity throughout the meeting, technical difficulties prevented us from doing so. Fortunately, we had plenty of topics to discuss and some new members who were determined to keep us engaged in some thoughtful and, at times, humorous debates.

Our first hour was spent engaged in a spirited and lively discussion regarding the general disposition of the movement, its ideas and its relation to other categories of human organizations. There were moments of levity, combativeness and genuine discussion as we attempted to put into concrete terms what made the movement different from all previous examples of failed human endeavors. It was a difficult, challenging but also rewarding discussion, and I believe all parties came away with a better understanding of what we were and were not about.

After a small break and some snacks kindly provided by one member, we continued on into a more formal discussion for the remainder of the meeting. We began by taking a general topic and breaking down the various legal, financial, material and social mechanisms by which we attempt to solve problems. The example we used was automobiles. We demonstrated how the government, the monetary system, the car manufacturers and the construction companies collude, knowingly or unknowingly, to create an environment in which we are inherently unsafe, placed in positions of subjugation by the legal system and charged money for the various failings of others. We learned that a monetary system based society has false values, while a society that had positive and relevant values would demand a safer vehicle, a robust efficient and long lasting roadway system and an environment were human error were diminished or non existent. We learned that technical problems require technical solutions, not political or legal remedies.

The last hour was devoted to discussion regarding increasing membership in the chapter. This has been the first meeting in which the attendance was lower than the previous one, and we decided to address the issue. We broke down the challenges of working within the Rio Grande Valley specifically, and discussed the various ways we can address each concern. We identified issues such as religious and social values, economic progress and economic depression, as well as education level and technical literacy. All of these issues can be encountered when attempting to promote the ideas of the movement to a Valley native, and we went over some ways in which we can help surmount those issues. Making others aware of our presence and our ideas are the focus of the global effort right now, and it is important that we pursue that goal. However, we also recognize the fact that ours is an emergent organization, and growth for growth's sake is not ideal, nor is it desired. All we can do is plant the seeds in the fertile minds of those around us, and hope that in time they will join us in our cause. More importantly, the meetings are a small part of this movement, both locally and globally. The numbers of those in attendance of any given meeting are dwarfed by those who are aware of us, our ideas and our goals. We facilitate meetings to give an opportunity for those who seek social interaction and a sense of belonging in their local community. Ultimately it is in the individual actions we take, in the personal interactions with friends, family and acquaintances where we increase our membership. We recognize that this is a long term process, which will take a great deal of effort, but it will grow into the movement that it needs to be and that is all we should ask for in these very early stages of its life.

We concluded with some general movement news, discussed the latest lecture, the new film coming in January and touched on the Illinois chapter issue. We also planned for our meeting on Wednesday, which I will post more details on as soon as we have them confirmed. We adjourned after taking our customary group photograph, available below, which was aided by the highly technologically advanced timer function of the camera, much to my personal delight. Thank you for your time and attention, and I hope that you join us for future meetings.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Reproduced below after the jump is a message sent to several members of the Zeitgeist Movement at both the state, national and global levels of organization that has arisen as part of an ongoing discussion and conflict about the impact of an individual on the Illinois chapter and how they relate or do not relate to what the Movement is about. This is going to be one of many future discussions and arguments of how we are going to come to define our emergent organization and how those who have been organizing at the global and national levels will try to manage the way we do so. I believe that this is a fascinating look into how we will be resolving issues in our own organization and the lessons we learn from it going forward will be valuable. The author of the message has posted it to the global movement website forums and I encourage you to engage in the discussion that happens there if you are so inclined. These events will occur in the future and it is important to be transparent within the Movement so that we can all learn from this discussion and others like it. We cannot help but have some of the old ways of thinking and managing intruding upon the new and emergent reality that we hope to create, and these clashes are going to be dominant throughout the transition. Thank you for your time and attention.

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement will have its fourth general meeting on Saturday October 30th, 2010. We will be meeting at STC in Building J Room 1-408 between 11am and 2pm. Our general agenda will be to meet and greet new members, view portions of The Rally to Restore Sanity, have a lively discussion of political views specifically related to TX and local politics and discuss and plan future meetings and events.

If you have any questions, concerns or comments about this event or the Zeitgeist Movement or Venus Project in general, please contact me or Armando Lopez. Thank you, and I hope to see you there.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement had its 3rd general meeting today in McAllen, TX. I am pleased to report that we had several new faces in attendance, including two young school children. I am very happy to see children attending our meetings and encourage people to bring them if they so choose. It is very unfortunate that we do not include children in the discussion of how society works. These young people had a rare opportunity to listen in and even participate in a wide ranging discussion about many different aspects of our current society. It was very much a treat and hope to meet more young minds as we continue to move toward a better world.

This meeting had no set agenda. As I mentioned previously, we had a wide ranging discussion about our experiences trying to reach out to others with the message of redesigning society to benefit all people. In one particular case, we explored the necessity of maintaining all our arguments and discussions on an intellectual and informative level. Emotional interactions are generally less productive and potentially hurtful to the parties involved. We also discussed the issue of credentialism and criticism of the messenger instead of critically analyzing the message. Many people who are socialized in our current system will not trust what a person has to say if they do not have the trappings of media approved competence or appearance. In many cases, these people are close friends or even family members. While we must understand that this is simply a symptom of the underlying forces at work at all levels of society, we can overcome these obstacles by finding a common ground between the participants of the discussion. Find things we can agree upon and build on that establishment of common ground. It is imperative to understand that what we are trying to do is highly suspicious to the self appointed guardians of the status quo, but that does not make them an adversary or even an enemy. These are the people that we need to reach if we are going to have any hope of moving society to a saner way of life.

Near the close of the meeting, we discussed the upcoming elections and our individual opinions on politics in general. There were many different views and opinions expressed, but one thing that we all made clear was that the Zeitgeist Movement is not a political movement and does not endorse political parties or candidates. One of our future goals as a global movement is to engage political authority at the appropriate time, but that is quite a long time off, and it would be ill advised and generally a waste of energy and resources to engage the political system at such an early stage. We do recognize however, that we are still subject to the monetary and political systems currently in place, and being informed and aware of those institutions are in the best interest of everyone.

Our next meeting will be on October 30th, which is coincident with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity. We are looking at ways to incorporate this event into our meeting due to the common goals that seem to be in common with both events. We will have more information available in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we encourage you to engage others in community events at your local school, college, church or other gathering. Society will not move forward until we find the courage as individuals to come forward and address the reality of problems and we start looking for the technical solutions to them. Thank you for your interest and attention.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

This meeting started with introductions of the assembled members and discussions about why we decided to become members. We are happy to have such a diverse group of people, with a wide range of political, social, academic and artistic backgrounds be a part of our new and growing group. Despite our many and varied points of view, we were all able to agree that the way things are going are unsustainable, and we have decided to work together for the betterment of society and spreading awareness of the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project. The majority of the individuals present were attending their first meeting and we are very happy that they have decided to join us.

We continued by watching the first 2 sections of the Orientation Video and discussed them. There was a good discussion about the challenges of raising children in a society that has aberrant values. We then had some discussion about future meetings, participating in activism both individually and as a group, and decided on having a meeting sometime next weekend, preferrably on Saturday. We will announce further details as they emerge in regards to that meeting. In addition, we closed the meeting with remarks about some news items from the national and global movement organizations.

Pictured below are seven of the participants right before the meeting ended. Thank you for your time and participation, and we hope to see you at future meetings and events.

Monday, October 4, 2010

This Wednesday, October 6th, we will be having our second official meeting. We are happy to announce that we now have a student organization on the South Texas College campus in McAllen, and they will be hosting us on campus. The meeting details are as follow:

Date: Wednesday October, 6 2010
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Room 231, Building H (Cafeteria), South Texas College
Address: 3201 W. Pecan, McAllen, TX
Agenda: We will be meeting and greeting our new members and hold a screening of the activist orientation video.

For those of you who are not familiar with the STC campus, there is a map available here.

We currently have just over 40 email addresses on our mailing list, and I am hopeful to see a good number of you at this meeting.

We are just starting out, but we are continuing to grow rapidly as the the idea that a new and redesigned society should be made available to all people spreads. If you have any questions, please post a message on this site or email me here.